Oakland police chief responds to city slashing PD budget amid crime surge: 'We have a crisis on our hands'

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Oakland police chief reacts to $17 million diversion from cops

Chief Leronne Armstrong sounds off on 'Fox News Primetime'

Oakland, California's, Democratic-majority city council passed a budget last week that slashes the police department's budget by $17 million, as the city continues to hold its place in the top 10 most dangerous cities in the United States. 

Oakland Police Chief Leronne Armstrong joined "Fox News Primetime" on Tuesday to sound off exclusively on what he called the crisis facing both his department and his city.

A measured Armstrong criticized the city council's decision, telling host Jesse Watters the move will have grave impact on police response times and more.

Watters noted that crime has gotten so bad in Oakland that a television news crew was robbed in front of city hall while interviewing a city official from the office of violence prevention. Homicides and carjackings both doubled in that city last year, he reported.

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"There are people who believe that less resources and violence prevention will make the city safer but we [at Oakland PD] clearly don't believe you need to reduce police forces in order to achieve safety," Armstrong said. 

"We believe that we need more resources to address the high spike in crime in the city of Oakland and that's really what I have been asking for – more support and resources to address the serious issue we are facing here."

Armstrong also reacted to City Councilmember Carroll Fife, who called reports of a crime wave "propaganda" and defended slashing the police budget because criminals need to be "nurtured" and not locked up.

"All the hysteria that's been going on through the media and through certain other channels is just that it's hysteria and propaganda," Fife said in a recent interview. "Investing in policing will only continue to lock folks up but not give them the nurturing that they have never had."

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She said the reallocation of funds from Oakland PD will attempt to aid in such "nurturing", adding that the city budget does not go far enough in that regard.

Armstrong said that the "nurturing" plan is not what will stem the epidemic of shootings in Oakland.

"I think that people who pick up guns and use them against other people in our community, they need to be arrested and held accountable. I believe our community wants the same thing," he said. "When I travel throughout the city, everybody says to me they want to live in a safe community and with those that are picking up firearms and shooting them; they believe they should be arrested and held accountable."

"That's what we are seeking to do … make the city safer."